My GMW experience,

[bibz]

Re: My GMW experience,

Being an aussie too I can totally see where your coming from dude. It really does cost a hell of alot to ship guitars around and theres no wonder you took it to a pro here. Canberra to central coast and back is a big hike too. I'm sure you were still faithful of the GMW brands flawless workmanship when you thought you'd just get the buzz checked out.
Its a hard situation though. I really want to hear what lee is going to say about this, and he has to comment. On one hand, the reputation and impact having all these wonderful guitars around with his crafting, on the other a case of a lemon, with problems so obvious you'd be pissed if it was an import. If hes going to build guitars for a living, he has to take pride in his work, as the company whole. Belittling the price makes no sense either, you expect satisfactory atleast, even more from a highly reputable maker no matter what the price point.

Being Australian, theres no way I could GMW now, maybe just second hand only, and thats no way to stay in business.

[thebisch]

Re: My GMW experience,

This is bad stuff. At this point I don't think the money/time risk is worth it to find out if this is an anomoli or not. On another note I have first hand experence with 3 GMWs and one GMW neck. There is absolutly nothing special about these guitars IMO. In fact I get the overall vibe whene I play them that they are something like a Warmoth. Is GMW a builder or a finisher/assembler? Just curious...I'll stick with my late '70s Strats, the best guitars ever made! [img]/images/graemlins/eyes.gif[/img]

[Soloist1]

Re: My GMW experience,

I guess I'm also in the minority here. If I had a guy contact me about a guitar I had built for him months ago and never heard about any problems, I wouldn't be all open arms about changing all kinds of things either. No offense but you should have called Lee first before taking it anywhere. I imagine it was at one of those places overnight for the fret work right? How do you know they didn't open the board up when they pulled frets or doing anything else to it for that matter? How is Lee supposed to know what they did to it?

I remember when you posted initially about getting the axe back in August. It looked great to me. And I don't recall you mentioning any problems with it. Every custom Jackson I have has shark fin inlays that aren't perfect. There's fill around all of them. The sizes aren't quite perfect going down the board also. I'd imagine its a hell of a lot harder to get ebony against maple to be perfect as well. And maybe I'm wrong but I recall hearing about plenty of bolt on axes that use shims to get the neck angle correct. To me it seems sufficient to fix the frets, the inlays and recess the Floyd, and do a complete refinish because of it, so you don't have to live in torment knowing the neck is shimmed.

And if you think your going to get perfection from Jackson you can think again. I have a laundry list of imperfections on my Warrior. But it is all nit picking stuff. If there was a huge problem that affected play or a huge defect it would have went right back immediately.

If the frets were bad you should have just sent the neck back to Lee. That would have been less shipping cost. As far as Lee being gruff all I can say is that its obvious he's not a people person. I'm the same way so I can understand it. He's always addressed my concerns even though he may have been short with his responses at times. And he has always emailed me back quickly.

He's been tunring work away because he is balls to the wall deep in orders. And because he won't do certain headstock designs as well a few other things. I know stuff like ding repair and partial refinishes don't happen anymore because they are time consuming. It's a total strip and refin or nothing. And what happened to the JCF rule about bashing someone that isn't here to defend themselves?

[slayer]

Re: My GMW experience,

You make some good points there, but that guitar was totally screwed up in my book. If I was GMW, I would want to take care of this issue pronto!! Jack.

[sully]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
And what happened to the JCF rule about bashing someone that isn't here to defend themselves?

[/ QUOTE ]

that applies to those that are banned. lee is certainly welcome here if he wishes to pop up.

sully

[Soloist1]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
You make some good points there, but that guitar was totally screwed up in my book. If I was GMW, I would want to take care of this issue pronto!! Jack.

[/ QUOTE ]

Screwed up when? I read no mention of it being screwed up in this post that started August 25th.

http://www.jcfonline.com/ubbthreads/...013&Forum=,f16,&Words=gmw&Searchpage=1&Limit=25& amp;Main=272013&Search=true&where=sub& Name=13&daterange=1&newerval=1&newerty pe=y&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Po st272013

It's now Febuary and all of the sudden it's screwed up? I'd be willing to bet there is more to the story. Especially since we're only seeing it from one side. But hey the more people that jump on the boycott GMW bandwagon the quicker turn around for the ones who aren't buying this.

[shreddermon]

Re: My GMW experience,

Genebaby-

I'm not taking sides here, but when I read through your first post, I thought many of the same things Soloist1 wrote above. That's not to say that the guitar wasn't actually completely f**ked. Only you, Lee, etc. know that for sure. But, for many of the problems you mentioned, I could also think of things that might've indicated that they were normal and/or not uncommon minor issues.

The fret buzzing: it's a birdsye neck, correct? It's common for figured necks to move around quite a bit. This, along with the climate changes of southern Cali vs. Australia, might've been the culprit. Or, at least, a contributing factor. Perhaps it wasn't poor fretwork at all. I immediately thought of this when you mentioned getting fretwork in the buzzing area, only to have the buzzing "move" to a different part of the neck.

- The second shop: Repairing and maintaining guitars can be like autos. Bring it in for a simple oil change, and a less scrupulous mechanic will immediately tell you that a tune-up, new filters, and brake pads are "needed". When all that's really happening is he's padding his workload for more $. Worst case scenario, the fret issues may have even been caused, or made worse, by them.

- The sharkies: Those look pretty acceptable to me. Damn cool looking, too. ...Could've been better? Perhaps. But show pics of 100 different inlays that close up, and some are bound to show minor gaps and glue. As to the size being slightly off vs. Jackson's, sorry but IMHO that's nitpicking.

Neck angle: It is perfectly acceptable for OE manufacturers to shim necks, nuts, etc. I once found business card-material shimming the nut of my then-new PC1. Would it have been better to have an angled neck pocket? Yep. Could GMW have used a better material than a piece of plastic? Sure. But if it ain't broke, don't fix it. (BTW, my own non-recessed GMW has a visable gap in the neck pocket that's probably caused by a shim. I don't care what's in there, as the guitar plays great and sustains killer.) And it sounds like Lee went the extra mile here, by recessing the trem, etc. for you.

Again, Gene, I don't disbelieve anything in your experience. Nor am I taking sides against you. But there might've been other reasons or contributing factors, such as above. Just trying to give you a different point of view, in the hopes of keeping an open mind about it all.

[shreddermon]

Re: My GMW experience,

P.S.- Another reason GMW may be digging their heels in about replacing the neck is because they CAN'T do pointyhead-style necks anymore.

[Jim Shine]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]

Worst case scenario, the fret issues may have even been caused, or made worse, by them.



[/ QUOTE ]

Having a second shop perform fretwork is enough to void even a factory warranty.

[BigDaddyD]

Re: My GMW experience,

It might be acceptable for a shim in a production model, inexpensive guitar; however, a $1750 custom made guitar should have had the proper angle when made. This was just sloppy. I do believe he should have contacted Lee first before having any work done, even Tom Anderson wouldn't work on my Anderson neck that was touched, but he would build me another one. If that were the only issue I would agree with you, however there were enough other issues, that make it clear to me that GMW is wrong here. I wonder how you would react if this was your guitar.

[Jim Shine]

Re: My GMW experience,

I would have sent it back to Lee if the neck was giving me trouble, I would not have taken it to anyone else. I have no problems with a neck shim. It worked on the best bolt ons I have ever played, so it works for me. For the inlays, almost every guitar I have has some sort of anomoly with the inlays and I don't have problems with any of them.

[BigDaddyD]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
I would have sent it back to Lee if the neck was giving me trouble, I would not have taken it to anyone else. I have no problems with a neck shim. It worked on the best bolt ons I have ever played, so it works for me. For the inlays, almost every guitar I have has some sort of anomoly with the inlays and I don't have problems with any of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would have done the same as you, but then again I don't live in Australia. I would have called first too. I would not have accepted the neck with a shim if I had it custom made...straight from the shop. If a shim became necessary later on then I could deal, but not set up that way from the shop. I could put a Warmoth together for that not pop for a straight up custom from one of the best [img]/images/graemlins/bs.gif[/img]

[quiksilver]

Re: My GMW experience,

Actually, Warmoth doesn't consider that acceptable, either. When I bought my Warmoth Soloist body from the Showcase (i.e., already built), I asked them to route it for a top-mount Floyd, and Warmoth said it was too late to do that, as the neck pocket had already been routed.

[mulder1966]

Re: My GMW experience,

I think Lee comes off as being a little arrogant until you have established a relationship with him. 99% of my experience with Lee has been very positive. Not to stick up for him, but I am sure he gets many calls and emails from people who may not really know what it takes to build the guitars. On the other hand, this situation seems to be out of the ordinary GMW experience, and seems to be an easy build for someone of his (Lee) caliber. I am sure Lee will step up and make this right for you. Good luck, and keep the updates coming. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[tmdiamond]

Re: My GMW experience,

This thread may very well be a classic study in the psychology of the behaviors of an emotionally charged large group. That statement is NOT meant as an insult to ANYONE here, I swear. Anyone here who owns a USA Jackson w/ sharkfins.....take a look at your fretboards and specifically, at the inlays. Most of us will see that the sharkies aren't dead-on perfect. I have a few that I can't see any "filler" between the MOP and the ebony btu most of my finned Jacksons look pretty much the same as Gene's. I think that, in this case, it may be partially a function of the ebony on maple that makes it stand out more.

The neck shim issue.....who knows? I can't say whether that is a big deal or not. I'm sure that I have some bolt-ons that are shimmed. My guess is that sometimes it's necessary, even in a custom ordered guitar.

Gene, you mentioned a problem with the nut in your initial post but I didn't catch what the problem was exactly. If I missed that, sorry, but could you describe the nut problem.

A lot of people here have said that they won't go to GMW because of this but I have to think that that's a rash response. Take a step back and consider that there is another person's take on the matter. I can understand not sending the guitar back to Lee for what you considered to be simply fret buzz. As soon as I got the guitar and found any problems, I would have at least emailed and probably called Lee and brought it to his attention. From Lee's position, months after a guitar is shipped to the other side of the world, he is told that it needs a new neck, along with other problems. Essentially, he's going to be insulted or at the very least, somewhat suspicious and annoyed. Wouldn't any of you be?????

FOr as long as I've been a member here, I've heard GMW and Lee touted as the guy to go to for custom guitar work and restorations. A few die-hard Charvel guys have had issues with Lee but 90% of the people here who have had work done by Lee gave him nothing but praise. Anybody can be short or gruff when they're stressed. And whether a person is arrogant about their work or not is irrelevant. I've dealt with Lee, bought guitars from him, talked to him on the phone, exchanged emails with him, and never experienced any of the problems that others have. I'm not saying that they didn't happen to others...just not to me.

Go back and read how this thread went from start to finish. Almost has a mob mentality about it. Sorry if this pisses some of you off. Not my intent. I just think that judgement has been too quickly passed.
Tom